São Pedro de Alcântara, Santa Catarina is a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
in the
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Santa Catarina in the
South region of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
.
The municipality contains part of the
Rio das Lontras Private Natural Heritage Reserve, a fully protected area of montane rainforest in the
Atlantic Forest biome.
German influence
On the first day of March 1829 the first German speaking colony of the state of Santa Catarina was founded, receiving the Portuguese name of ''Colônia São Pedro de Alcântara'', located not too far from the state's capital, ''Desterro'', having its name changed in modern times to
Florianópolis
Florianópolis () is the capital and second largest city of the state of Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina, in the South Region, Brazil, South region of Brazil. The city encompasses Santa Catarina Island and surrounding small islands, as we ...
. Initially the colony did not experience great success when compared to other similar federal, state, or private enterprises, but with time it got incorporated into Florianópolis, a modern and thriving Brazilian metropolitan area. The state of Santa Catarina has a highest percentage of German descent people compared to all other Brazilian states; however, the state of Rio Grande do Sul, just south of it, has by far the highest number of German-Brazilians in total numbers, with around one quarter of its inhabitants speaking German, more often than not a dialect, at home or amongst locals.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Santa Catarina
This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Santa Catarina (SC), located in the South Region of Brazil. Santa Catarina is divided into 295 municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal cor ...
*
São Leopoldo
São Leopoldo () (Portuguese for ''Saint Leopold'') is a Brazilian industrial city located in the south state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Geography
It occupies a total area of 103.9 km2 (around 80 km2 urban area) at ''circa'' 30 km fr ...
, in the neighboring state of
Rio Grande do Sul
Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...
, founded in 1824 by the first pioneer German speaking families to settle permanently in Brazil, is officially considered the cradle of German-Brazilian culture (see the
Riograndenser Hunsrückisch
Hunsrik (natively ''Hunsrik'' , ''Hunsrückisch'' or ''Hunsrickisch'' and Portuguese ''hunsriqueano'' or ''hunsriqueano riograndense''), also called Riograndese Hunsrik, ' or ', is a Moselle Franconian language derived primarily from the Hunsrà ...
German language of
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
).
References
Municipalities in Santa Catarina (state)
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